Blood, Sweat & Tears ( B4 )

 While Blood, Sweat & Tears achieved commercial success alongside similarly configured ensembles such as Chicago and the Electric Flag, the band had difficulty maintaining its status as a counterculture icon at a time when record company executives deemed this characteristic important as a tool to lure young consumers. This was compounded by the band going on a United States Department of State-sponsored tour of Eastern Europe in May/June 1970. Any voluntary association with the government was highly unpopular at the time, and the band was ridiculed for it. It is now known that the State Department subtly requested the tour in exchange for more amicability on the issuance of a visa to Clayton-Thomas.

After returning to the U.S., the group released Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 (June 1970), produced by Roy Halee and drummer Colomby. The album was another popular success, spawning hit singles with a cover of Carole King's "Hi-De-Ho" and another Clayton-Thomas composition, "Lucretia MacEvil". While this was a successful attempt to re-create the amalgam of styles found on the previous album, the band again depended almost exclusively on cover material. Album reviews sometimes focused solely upon the band's willingness to work with the U.S. State Department, without bothering to discuss the actual music. Compounding the image problems of the band was a decision to play at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, widely seen at the time as a mainstream venue for acts that did not engage in radical politics.

In late 1970, the band provided music for the soundtrack of the film comedy The Owl and the Pussycat , which starred Barbra Streisand and George Segal, further damaging the group's underground reputation.

Following this period of controversy, the group reconvened in San Francisco in January 1971 with jazz writer/saxophonist Don Heckman serving as their producer. With Dave Bargeron replacing Jerry Hyman, they recorded material that would form the basis of their fourth album, BS&T 4 (June 1971).

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